Radiohead At The Grammys: Odd Men Up

While Robert Plant & Alison Krauss may have taken home the Big Trophy and M.I.A.’s bursting-beach-ball pregnancy (or Katy Perry’s tits) may have been the talk of the town at last night’s Grammy awards ceremony, but it was Radiohead’s performance of 15 Step that stole the thunder from Lil’ Wayne and Coldplay in a night full of attempted “unforgettable” performances.

To be honest, Radiohead did more than steal the show; they made U2 look like out of touch old men and all the “special guest collaborations” look like empty hype magnets by comparison- which a good many of them were (Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Bros? My head hurts). Don’t get me wrong, the Timberlake/T.I. song was badass, and the Kanye/Jay-Z/Lil’ Wayne/T.I./M.I.A. track Swagga Like Us was absolutely nuts- but there was a spastic, majestic energy to Radiohead’s 15 Step that eclipsed every other performance last night. Watching Thom Yorke’s shaggy, one-eyed electrocution dance as the USC Marching Band backed Johnny Greenwood was more than entertaining- it was inspiring. Theirs was the only performance that made me want to turn off my TV and make music afterward- and that’s perhaps the best compliment I can bestow on an artist.

On a side note, whoever Miley Cyrus’ handlers are made a baaad decision in pairing her up with Taylor Swift, the girl who just stepped off an eight-week run at the top of the Billboard 200, for a duet last night. The beautifully poised and graceful Swift made Miley look like the braying, horse-faced spoiled little brat that she is. The talent gap between the two was a painful distraction.

Johnny Firecloud's been kickin' names and takin' ass since his first interview in 2001 with A Perfect Circle, 6 years before starting AQ with Kevin Cogill. He also spent ten years as music editor/senior writer at CraveOnline.

Apparently I’m the one guy on Earth that just doesn’t get the Radiohead hype at all. While that performance was cool enough, erase the audio and visuals created on that stage by people that aren’t members of Radiohead and I have to wonder if it’s even half as cool.

I was so lucky that the second I turned the channel to the Grammy’s after I finished watching “Zack and Miri make a porno” Radiohead started playing. I got to watch for 4 minutes and then shut it off. How perfect is that!

You guys are idiots. Radiohead are the greatest musical talents in music today. You think USC’s band instructor wrote that rhythm section? You don’t get the Radiohead hype because your ignorant as to the structure of modern musical and lyrical composition. It’s not your fault, you just need to study up. I was once like you.

I agree with ya Joseph Rose, can someone slap Rob right between the eyes with a wet fish for me, I can’t reach from here.
Gwen just really shouldn’t present, lots of emphasis on the really. Maybe she was doing it to get back at Chris. /shrug.

Sorry, but have you heard the original album version of the song? The band pretty much follows that beat for beat. Besides, what trumpetgirl is actually saying is that Thom tried to write it out (the notes/music) but didn’t do it right, so the director had to fix it.

Apparently I’m the one guy on Earth that just doesn’t get the Radiohead hype at all. While that performance was cool enough, erase the audio and visuals created on that stage by people that aren’t members of Radiohead and I have to wonder if it’s even half as cool.
—

I could never listen to Radiohead, no matter how many times I was told how awesome they are. I just can never get into it, which obviously doesn’t mean they aren’t good. It just means you have to be weird to like them, and more power to ya.

And I may just be destroying myself right now but:

I am probably the only one here excited by the Blink 182 reunion…aren’t I.

The parts the marching band played are facimiles of the parts the other band members play. Would it have been just as cool with just Radiohead and not the marching band? I don’t know why don’t you look up some live versions of that song on you-tube? I think you’ll see that the answer is yes. If you don’t get radiohead that’s kind of too bad. I had to try for a few years before their music clicked with me. Try sitting down and listening to ok computer front to back. Don’t do other stuff while you’re listening, just listen. Radiohead makes great albums, not just songs, the best way to listen is an album at a time. If you’ve got a nice stereo and a nice turntable do one better and get their albums on vinyl, they sound even better. When I heard amnesiac on vinyl I sold all my cd’s and bought records.

how anyone can watch that performance and not instantly and forevermore equate radiohead with brilliance is beyond me!! watching the collaboration with usc marching band was absolutely thrilling, and being someone who could care less about the grammy’s, i was really happy to have caught it. awesome review… the ignorance of the masses is obvious, however, when he’s considered less of a musician because he couldn’t easily transpose the usual electronic rhythm into a full marching band score. check out that time signature maybe. i think they might know what they’re doing.

ok first off the performance was brilliant beyond compare,no one at the grammy’s could touch on that,and if one of you non musical expeditionaries could show me a band that is even close to radiohead,either musically or lyrically,please do so. oh wait! you know what??????? there isn’t any,there’s so many bands out their that try to incorporate radiohead’s sound into their music but it doesn’t work. they are one of a kind,from ok computer on,every album has been a masterpiece. name one band that actually covered a radiohead song and made it sound goood…..don’t worry i’ll wait.
im sorry for seeming like an asshole,but in order for one to capture the aesthetic feel of radiohead’s music,one would have to see them live,and listen to their records front to back.

That was awesome! Radiohead taught a lesson to all the other shitty bands there(fuck coldplay) by doing stuff like that … its just amazing, they are the best band around, they always try new things and come up with truly beautiful sounds, the results are unique albums, each one different and better (?) than the previous, always innovating. Nobody else does that. They’re not affraid of their creativity and im so grateful for that.
It might be not easy to get them…but thats cos we’re exposed to so much shit. I agree one must take the time and listen to their records paying attention to the lyrics, in the end you realize it’s not just sounds, not just words, not just catchy rythms, it’s a true artistic experience. And that stays with you.

rob you are right by a long shot. Feylne is an idiot. Chris martin obviously had paltrow go up there and say those things about radiohead because the lead singer for coldplay is a huge radiohead fan and wanted them to get their respect finally. Coldplay is the poppy bullshit version of radiohead and they know it so they went the high road and talked them up. and yes anyone who says radiohead is not good is an idiot who just simply doesnt know music. thats what music has come to these days. and wow even if the marching band came up with the shit its because thats what they do but they didnt create the chords to go with each other, radiohead did. and johnny is a composer so theres no argument here just a lot of stupid idiots who think lil wayne is good and even had a chance

Yeah, that’s more like it, they even named their album OK Calculator, and it’s kinda like comparing a computer to a calculator. Though, you see when it comes to Radiohead, the bullshit version will still be good, after all, there are things in life you just can’t turn into shit.

Radiohead is as good as it gets for me. Sorry if some of you don’t get them. There is not another act I’d want to see more. Saw them twice last year and all I’ve wanted to do is listen to them nonstop since. I can understand if some people don’t “get” them, because they are different. But compared to the BS that is called “music” these days (whether rap or pop or whatever), Radiohead is second to none. Truly brilliant…I just hope they keep doing what they do for a long long time.

i saw radiohead twice. once opening up for alanis morrissette in like 1992 (i left after their set, don’t worry), and once in san diego on the hail to the thief tour or thereabouts. i barely remember the first one of course, but the second was amazing. radiohead’s a great band. but there’s a lot not to get. i tried to get into kid a and amnesiac- listened to them both over and over and over to try and acquire the taste. waste of my fucking life. on the other hand, ok computer is an incredible album, and i liked hail to the thief. in rainbows didn’t blow my skirt up. they’ve got my respect, but there are more consistent bands out there if you ask me.

Skwerl, I’m in a very similiar situation, I started listening to Radiohead in late 2006, because a girl once told me: “you’re a creep, you’re a weirdo”. So I had this one song, which I only kind of liked. Then at the end of 2007 In Rainbows came out, I gave it a listen, 15 Step, and All I Need, were the only tracks I liked, and they weren’t that special… In summer 2008 I thought about listening to Paranoid Android (it was used in anime Ergo Proxy), therefore I downloaded OK Computer, it was like BANG! Started with Electioneering… and the track I didn’t fancy much was Paranoid Android. I’ve also listened to Talk Show Host (which is one of my favourites), the Idioteque (I’ve first heard on Antiquiet), and How to Disappear Completely… I find it hard to dig the rest of it, but I know that the time will come, it will strike me like a fucking lightning or sometin’… I know it ’cause I’m about to dig In Rainbows.

I watched the first parto of the Grammys, and it annoyed the hell out of me, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus (Taylor was cool, shame I didn’t know about her).
To tell the truth I watched it yesterday, and I have hardly any recollection of the event, I remember the above mentioned and Coldplay with Jay-Z, there was also that hot girl with female guitarist and the rest (I was more focused on her legs). I need to watch the second part now.

Fantastic. Dunno why the other three aren’t there, though it makes sense because the only part of the song the marchers wouldn’t have been able to reproduce easily is finger-y guitar. I seriously doubt Jonny Greenwood transcribed the marching band’s parts, though. He’s probably the only member of Radiohead with the ability to do so, but he probably wasn’t too hopped up about playin the Grammys anyways, so jus let someone else do it.

The hot girl withthe female guitarist was Carrie Underwood, who didn’t do nearly as good of a vocal job as whoever was singing backup. But her guitarist, in addition to shredding shit right up, was sizzling fuckin’ hot. I need to know her name.

I can’t believe I missed the grammy’s. I don’t think I’ve ever watched one before, but Radiohead was going to be on this one! I love Radiohead. I started listening to Radiohead about 2 years ago. I heard Creep on the radio and LOVED it. I couldn’t imagine a better song…until I heard some of their other stuff. After listening to their other music, Creep sort of vanished. I’ll admit that I had a hard time liking some of the songs, but after several attempts at listening to them and after some time I fell in love with them. They begin to grow on you…little by little until BOOM! I was once told by my brother that the reason why it takes a little while for some songs to grow on you is because of the myriad of layers to their music. It’s true. They have sooo much in each song that at first it just sounds too confusing, almost too cluttered. Eventually your ear sort of gets trained in a way and thats when you begin to love the music. I think it’s just that we’re so used to listening to the sh** thats out there now that when we hear something so brilliant its hard for us to digest at first.

After 2 year of listening to them I’m still finding some songs I didn’t like at first and most of those I’m just now beginning to like. I went to my first Radiohead concert for the In Rainbows tour in Cali. It transformed me. I’ll never forget that night. INCREDIBLE.

“But her guitarist, in addition to shredding shit right up, was sizzling fuckin’ hot. I need to know her name.” Her name is Orianthi Panagar and an Aussie, to boot. Carrie had lovely, shiny legs but Orianthi made crazy musical love to my mind and I didn’t think that she looked overly rock ‘n roll-cliche in those leather pants.

Forgive me but while Miley Cyrus was an over singing….”singer”, Taylor-as lovely a vision in light and gold as she was- had vocals that were falling completely off the scale….and it’s not the first time that I’ve heard her sing that way. I thought she was supposed to be something akin to “amazing” not tone deaf. Seriously. Other than playing a decent acoustic guitar and the song itself being quite good and appropriate for it’s singers, Taylor wasn’t all that at the Grammys. Reality check.

you’ll never find me talking shit on taylor swift around here- she’s the real deal and has always written her own songs and has gotten to where she is the hard way, working hard at a very young age. but yes, speaking completely objectively, it wasn’t a Great vocal performance. maybe just enough to set her apart from the britneys and mileys (o snap), but fair point tng.

In disregard of a few parts, I have to admit, that this version is better than what we can find on album. It’s charged with a whole different type of energy, and emotions> To put it simply: it’s (a)live in every kind of meaning.

True, good for Swift for being self-made unlike her “contemporaries” and still a lovely vision in light and gold. It’s damned hard not to root for that when so much crap floats to the surface. Apologies for the toilet humor.

There are a few bands I wish was there. It wouldn’t have been really much more of a kickass moment, but on par with the radiohead thing, if we got a showing of a little live mars volta I think our collective minds would have been a little bit better for it. course then there would have been a grace period of X (x being time dependent on each person) in which people had to pat the fucking brain of theirs that just souped out of their noses and into their laps, forming a puddle, back in their heads

The only reason Radiohead eclipsed everother one of those pathetic artists is the fact that there not the same cookie cutter bull shit that everyone else is making and actually though it was god it was just another radiohead concert, and it just goes to show there musical talent as well as there stage presence cant be compared to such bull shit artists like those on stage at the grammies normally.

I can’t believe some of the people on here have seen radiohead live TWICE!! That is like, #1 on my list of things to do before I die I hope you realise how lucky you are. I will probably have to go to England if I ever want to see them perform.
And I read somewhere that Thom Yorke never learnt to read music, so I guess he wouldn’t have been able to write all the drum parts and stuff for the marching band.

Sometimes certain types of music aren’t for everyone but that does not mean they suck, I hated 15 step when it first came out now months upon months of its release I can’t stop listening to it. I have been a fan of nirvana for as long as I can remember and when people ask me my favorite albums OK computer and The bends are way before nirvana’s bleach, or in in utero. What radiohead has done is change the way music sounds and some people just don’t like change. Whats with the hype? thats the hype…